Legnica

Legnica stands among the waters of the Kaczawa and Czarna Woda in Lower Silesia. Its castle was a residence of the Silesian Piasts, and from 1248 the town served as the capital of their duchy. Nearby, at Legnickie Pole, Duke Henry II the Pious and his army fell to the Mongols in 1241. Within the town, churches, walls and a market grew around the ducal seat; a mint began striking coins in 1345. The Gothic church of St Peter rose in the fourteenth century, while potters formed one of the oldest guilds of their craft in Silesia.

The dukes of Legnica became vassals of Bohemia in 1329, yet their line endured for centuries. Duke Frederick II introduced the Reformation in 1522, supported by the theologians Caspar Schwenckfeld and Valentin Krautwald. His agreement with the electors of Brandenburg over the inheritance of the duchy was disputed by the Habsburg rulers of Bohemia. When George William, the last Piast duke, died in 1675, Legnica passed directly to the Habsburgs.

The old inheritance claim later furnished Frederick II of Prussia with a pretext for invading Silesia. Prussia gained Legnica in the First Silesian War, and the duchy's remaining privileges were largely swept away after the Peace of Hubertusburg in 1763. The castle and the Gothic church of St Peter remained reminders of the long age of the Piast dukes.